A/N: Thought we should check in on the boys... They've been feeling neglected.

Bad dragon... bad, bad, bad, dragon. Heheheheh. {hides}

Sam looked over her shoulder to see a pair of Dobermans that looked familiar bearing down on her position. She was just in time to witness the men behind them, one of them leveling a gun at her. She ducked, flattening herself to the wall as the man fired, a burning, stinging pain across her shoulders telling her she'd at least been grazed. Sam was suddenly faced with a choice. Take her chances in the ravine, or stay and face the dogs and men behind them carrying guns. Sam decided.

Chapter 37

Jack willed the plane to fly faster. He looked over at his teammates. Daniel looked like he'd rather be pacing, and Teal'c was poorly faking meditation. It had been nearly three days since Sam had been taken, and that was more than two days too long for Jack's liking. A lot could have happened to her in that much time.

After coming up with little than the fact she'd been taken away by vehicle, Daniel had applied himself to creating a search database of online papers. They'd placed their ad in the local paper for the next edition to print (they'd just made the cut off for the morning run) and he and Teal'c had set to interviewing base personnel. Finding nothing in their interviews that evening, they'd gotten their first lead in the morning when an airman who had been assigned to the security gate that Daniel and Sam had used the previous day failed to report for duty.

After a brief search of the Airman Jameson's apartment revealed a receipt for a plane ticket, the man was caught at the airport trying to board a plane out of the country. He'd been brought back to the SGC, and now sullenly sat in the holding room, refusing to talk. Jack had dropped a hint to Teal'c, who'd understood immediately and went in the room. After a period of silence, Teal'c stood by the door and started to talk with the airman on guard duty. It seemed Teal'c was well versed in the ways that Jaffa dealt with traitors. Jack watched the security tape and smiled as the man turned various colors as Teal'c impassively described methods to keep the unfortunate traitor alive and suffering for days. The guard, who caught onto the idea right away, listened with interest, occasionally asking questions.

When Colonel O'Neill finally entered the room, Jameson had practically thrown himself at his feet, ready to spill everything he knew if O'Neill could just promise that he'd be sent far away from the SGC. O'Neill had been more than happy to oblige the man, unfortunately, the man had known little more than who the person was that he was sending the information he'd gathered to. Jameson had admitted to securing copies of reports about Major Carter's change, as well as security photos and footage, and information about her activities and whereabouts. When Daniel and the Major had passed his checkpoint, he'd sent a coded message that told the men waiting that she was in position.

Jameson tried to claim he'd only been following orders, but had clammed up on the name of his superior. When O'Neill mentioned something about leaving Teal'c to guard the man alone, he reluctantly gave the name. It seems Jameson had gotten in a bit of trouble a few years ago, and the General who had been receiving the information had done him a favor and swept the whole incident under the carpet. It still did not excuse the man for what he'd done. In addition to being AWOL, charges of treason now could be held against him as well. If the man ever got out of prison, he would find himself dishonorably discharged.

While the man didn't have a lot of information other than the name of the General he'd been getting orders from, he had apparently taped several conversations. With a little prompting, Jameson had revealed the location of his 'evidence'. They had found several tapes and some documents kept in a little used maintenance shaft, conveniently out of the way of any cameras, another oversight of base security that would need to be looked into later.

Armed with the evidence, SG-1 had stopped off picking up General Vidrine, who had been more than happy to help out when he heard the story. Confronted with the evidence and the presence of the other General, General Cameron had readily spilled everything he knew, including who he'd sent the information about Major Carter to.

And that was why Jack and the rest of SG-1 were on the fastest jet they could commandeer on short notice, heading to somewhere in Pennsylvania, to the estate of multi billionaire Jason Arden. Although, what the man exactly had wanted with Carter was unknown. Cameron hadn't been too clear on that, something about a collector of rare things. Jack had always known Carter was one of kind, but still, this was a bit extreme.

After landing at the nearest airport, Jack, Teal'c and Daniel boarded a chopper already primed and ready to go. From there, a car and driver was waiting for them.

Arriving at Arden's mansion, and there was no other way to describe the enormous sprawling multi leveled complex, the team found the place a hive of activity. Lights flooded everything, helicopters ran search patterns overhead, and every government agency from the FBI to the ATF seemed to be parked outside. Local law enforcement vehicles were too numerous to count, and a barricade kept a battery of reporters back from the action. O'Neill could also see several animal control vehicles parked outside.

"Well, this is unexpected." O'Neill glanced over at his teammates. Teal'c merely inclined his head; Daniel just blinked and stared at the action.

The Colonel allowed Teal'c to make a pathway to the barricade through the crush of bodies blocking the way, he and Daniel followed in his wake. Not surprised when they were stopped immediately, and asked to show ID. Unimpressed with their military ID's, the police officer was slightly more impressed with the signed papers from the president of the United States. How Vidrine had arranged to get them to the Pennsylvania airport by the time they'd touched down remained a mystery, but O'Neill was grateful. He had not thought the papers necessary, but now he was relieved they had them, as they got him and his team past the barricade and to the temporary "command center". Organized chaos would have been a better term.

Briefly, Jack felt sorry for the guy stuck in charge of the mass of civilians, the guy looked at their papers, and back to them, curiosity evident on his face, but Jack had no time. If Carter were here, he intended to find her and get out as quickly as possible.

Getting the low down on events, it seemed that Jason Arden had quite a varied collection of wild and domestic animals, most of them kept illegally. Some sort of failure had allowed many of the animals, including a tiger, and several other predatory animals, to escape. Arden had been out of town on business, but had quickly been located and arrested. Local law enforcement and animal control officials were busy trying to round up various cats and dogs and other animals, while specialist trackers were trying to locate the tiger and other large cats still on the loose. Local reporters had of course already plastered the information on the evening news, and people living nearby were panicked.

The Colonel was about to tell the rest of his team to split up and look for information on Carter. Somehow, he suspected that she was behind the current mess. Daniel suddenly grabbed his arm, pointing out a man that was cuffed and being led away by police. The man was babbling about a cat that had apparently used the computer to unlock all the cages. The police officers taking him away laughed, but the Colonel pushed forward, pulling a creased photo from his pocket.

"This cat, was that the one that unlocked the cages?" He asked, shoving the photo under the man's nose. The photo had been taken that first trip to the surface; Sam was curled up on a rock in the sun asleep, the color photograph clearly showing her soft blonde striped fur.

The man's eyes grew wide in shock. "Yes, that's it, that's the one. How did you know?"

Before the police could stop him, Jack had grabbed the man by the front of his shirt, ignoring the restraining hand Teal'c had placed on his arm. Pulling the man's face to within inches of his own, Jack all but shouted. "Where is she now, where did she go?"

Terrified, the man babbled, "I don't know man, she went out the window. She'd been brought to the kennel by Mr. Arden's orders. I thought she was sick; I would have never taken her out of the cage. I tried to stop her but she got away, and than that tiger got out, and man, that tiger is huge..." Jack dropped the man as he continued to babble. Stalking away from the glaring police officers, Jack picked a direction at random and grabbed the first person he saw, demanding the direction of the kennels.

Without too much trouble, the team found the kennel, and the still open window. The room was filled with the sounds of animals, still excited and agitated, those that had not been able to leave their cages. Open cages stood empty, and a mess of broken objects and equipment littered the room, testament to a mass exodus of a large group of animals. If she couldn't blow the place up, trust Carter to create as spectacular diversion as possible. Only Carter would release a tiger as a way to hide her escape.

Quickly looking out the window, Teal'c did the same. Nodding to his teammate once they had the direction down, they quickly looked for an exit, and found one not far down the hall.

The ground was soft, so footsteps were easy to find, but a number of animals and people had crossed back and forth over them making it difficult to pick out the ones he wanted. Somehow, Teal'c managed to find a small set of paw prints that seemed to fit with what he believed Carter's would look like. Teal'c noted with concern that she appeared to have been limping, as one of the imprints was lighter than the others, and sometimes she walked only on three legs. The men hurried along the trail, even more anxious now to find their missing comrade.

The trail led to a low wall, about waist high, and Teal'c said it appeared that Major Carter had jumped onto the wall. Jack glanced over the side and winced. The water didn't look very calm, and he doubted Carter would have lasted long in it, especially not injured. Cats weren't designed to be swimmers, and if her one exposure to water was any indication, Carter was no exception to that rule.

While he had been looking over the wall, Teal'c and Daniel and split off in opposite directions looking along the wall for clues that Sam had perhaps come down off the wall somewhere else. Teal'c stopped suddenly, and called out. "O'Neill, over here."

Jack ran to his friend's side and stopped. Daniel pulled up behind him and muttered, "Oh God."

Lying before them were the remains of what once had been a cat. There wasn't much left to identify the unfortunate creature, but through the bloodstains they could clearly see that the cat had stripes, and seemed to be the right color. Jack closed his eyes. They couldn't have been too late. It wasn't fair; she didn't deserve it, not like this.

A/N: Hmm... have I mentioned I'm on vacation? I leave for New York tonight. {hides real good}